‘Where is Baltimore?': Your ‘Ha Ha, People Are Silly’ Twitter Meme of the Moment

‘Where is Baltimore?': Your ‘Ha Ha, People Are Silly’ Twitter Meme of the Moment

Generally speaking, I think most of those Twitter roundups poking fun at dopey teenagers who’ve never heard of Stone Roses or Arcade Fire or whomever are pretty silly because they advance an outdated monocultural notion of the world that vilifies different experiences rather than expanding them, because really, why the hell should anyone under the age of 21 have heard “She Bangs the Drums” through natural, non-Guitar Hero means? There’s a good Pusha T quote where he’s talking about introducing new audiences to his material instead of relying on the cultural capital from his old Clipse records: “Like, why would I be frustrated that a 12-year-old doesn’t know my dope boy chronicles from 10 years ago? Are you serious? What am I supposed to do, give him my discography and say, ‘Now you take that, go home, and study!’? He was only two when we first came out! I got a big fucking ego, but it ain’t that big.” So yeah, that’s how I feel about that.

But this one is pretty funny.

During last night’s Super Bowl game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, a not-insignificant number of people took to Twitter to ask, apparently quite seriously, “Where is Baltimore?” (For those of you who don’t know, it’s in Maryland.) Now, this isn’t as simple as someone having a cultural experience that excluded listening to the Beatles as a kid, but basic geography; rather than doing the prudent, simple thing by Googling their query (and it’s literally a one word answer, rather than a discography to hunt through), they took to Twitter to proudly broadcast their ignorance. (It’s worth noting that some of the incredulity might have been a stuffy, “Baltimore doesn’t matter” feigned dismissiveness, but still.) I don’t know if it means anything other than SILLY TEENS, but I feel a little easier chuckling at this one. Here are some examples below; please, don’t Tweet at them to call them stupid.